Company to buy Mesa and move to Malvern

SunTechnics Energy Systems Inc., a provider of renewable-energy systems, will base its East Coast headquarters in Malvern after acquiring Mesa Environmental Sciences Inc., which has offices in Malvern and Marlton.

The acquisition, for an undisclosed amount, will allow the combined company, which will be named Mesa Energy L.L.C., to move forward on $50 million of potential projects, said Sarah Hetznecker, who founded Mesa five years ago with her husband, Gary Sheehan.

Mesa's current staff of 16 will double within a year, she said, as the company hires engineers and installers.

SunTechnics, which was also founded in the mid-1990s by a husband-and-wife team, in Germany, has its U.S. headquarters in Sacramento, Calif. It is a 600-employee subsidiary of Conergy Group of Germany. The U.S. office is headed by Florian Edler, who started with SunTechnics as an engineering intern in 1998.

Conergy produces renewable-energy systems, including solar thermal, photovoltaics, wind and bioenergy. Its financial subsidiary, Epuron L.L.C., has U.S. headquarters in Philadelphia.

Edler said his company was attracted to Pennsylvania by its "excellent renewable-energy politics" and its central location to serve the Mid-Atlantic market.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday morning, Edler credited Gov. Rendell and Kathleen McGinty, secretary of Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, for creating a market for renewable-energy systems through various tax credits and incentives either now in place or proposed in the governor's budget.

Rendell, who attended the news conference, said Pennsylvania was committed to substituting renewable energy for the one billion gallons of fossil fuels the state now imports from the Persian Gulf.

The conference was held at the Friends complex at 15th and Cherry Streets, which is using Mesa technology to install a solar system as it renovates its buildings.